This blog started as a year long project to post a photo taken in the Aberdeenshire village of Johnshaven every day for a year.
Having completed all 366 postings, I'm going to keep adding the occasional photo. All comments are very welcome. If you see anything on here that is factually inaccurate, please feel free to put me right!

Wednesday, 30 November 2011

Some time ago the Photo-a-Day pic was of a new delivery of creels sitting at the harbour. Some of them have now had the netting added. I'm sure there's a technical term for this - can anyone educate me?

I think I've changed the settings so that anyone can post comment without having to register/ sign in.

Tuesday, 29 November 2011

It's not actually impending, there is a storm blowing right now, but at least it wasn't raining when I took this photo at about 9:30 this morning. What the photo doesn't show is the fact that I was struggling to hold the camera still as I was being buffeted about by the wind.

No doubt these plastic boxes and all of that seaweed will be thrown onto the road at high tide.

Saturday, 26 November 2011

Here's the Christmas Fair in full swing in the Village Hall today. It is organised by a different village group every year - they hire tables out to other groups and provide refreshments in the wee hall at the back.

This year it's the turn of Johnshaven Primary School to run the event - you can just make out the Santa hats of some children on the stage, singing Christmassy songs.

It is a great fundraiser for all the participating groups and is always very well supported by the community.

Friday, 25 November 2011

I've tried to add short video clips to the Photo-a-Day blog but, infuriatingly, they've never actually uploaded properly. So, these photos will have to do - a wave - now you see it, now you don't!
These were taken this morning. It's beautiful here but very, very chilly.

Tuesday, 22 November 2011

Even a plant ignoramus like me can see that these bulbs are popping up a bit early in the Starfish Studio tubs. On Radio Scotland this morning Fred Macaulay said that there's snow on the way, so I hope they're not doomed.

Sunday, 13 November 2011

The annual Remembrance Day service was held in the church today and followed by the laying of wreaths at the village war memorial.

The flag bearer for the Guides was Kirsty MacKenzie and for the Brownies it was Molly Pennington. The piper was Sam Collins. Wreaths were laid by representatives of the Mearns Coastal Parish, Benholm and Johnshaven Community Council, the Guides and Brownies and Lathallan School.

Sunday, 6 November 2011

I believe that 'pade' means path, and given that this is close to Brotherton Castle (now Lathallan School), does the Baron bit refer to the local landowner who would have lived there and frequently travelled up and down this path?

Saturday, 5 November 2011

Regular readers will have seen this field full of a waving barley crop and, more recently, with it all harvested and just the stubble remaining. Now there are signs of new growth - no idea what it is yet.
Watch this space...

Friday, 4 November 2011

This wee cul-de-sac is right on the edge of the village. Some of the houses have turrets, and the orange bricks on the corners make them quite unusual. It's certainly very different from the old cottages of various shapes and sizes that make up most of the village.

Thursday, 3 November 2011

A few days ago (no 199) I posted a photo of the former road beyond The Narrows. Here's the wide gap in the rocks as seen from the other side. I presume that this was blasted away to make way for the road, many moons ago.

Wednesday, 2 November 2011

Early last week I took lots of photos of gorgeous autumnal colours for the blog but my memory card became corrupted somehow and they are all lost. Unfortunately the high winds have already removed most of the deciduous leaves around the village, but this morning I snapped this beautiful example in the Beechgrove Garden beside Golden Acre.

Tuesday, 1 November 2011

At Hallowe'en we always have lots of guisers coming to Johnshaven Stores to earn a bag of sweeties in return for giving us a joke, song, magic trick, poem or whatever. Usually they just come up to the counter where we have a few decorations, but this year we did something bigger and better.

In a corner of the shop there's a secret door which, until last night, hardly anyone knew about. It leads into our old living room (the new one is above Starfish Studio) and eventually we intend to extend Johnshaven Stores into this space. Until then it's lying empty and inaccessible other than through the secret door, which is usually covered in gift bags.

Eilidh had the excellent idea of decorating the room and using it for Hallowe'en, so over the last week or so she and Kirsty have been sneaking in there with all kinds of spooky decorations.

It was really dark and spooky, but the flash on the camera has lit it all up, so it's hard to show you how it really looked.

The hosts for the evening: Kirsty, Eilidh & their friend Lisa, assisted by some mad witch woman and a vampirey shopkeeper.

Those brave enough were invited to put their hand into a box of slimy gunge and remove an eyeball, and here's Calli doing just that.

We had children queuing at the door for most of the evening, and handed out 75 bags of sweeties to a fabulous collection of witches, monsters and all sorts. In amongst all the jokes we were told, there were also two songs and a poem. It wasn't just kiddies coming in - one of the songs was brilliantly performed by these big guisers!

I don't know whether we'll be able to repeat this next year - ideally that room will be part of the shop by then, but it was certainly lots of fun last night!